Given a set P of n points and an integer k, we wish to place k facilities on points in P so that the minimum distance between facilities is maximized. The problem is called the k-dispersion problem, and the set of such k points is called a k-dispersion of P. Note that the 2-dispersion problem corresponds to the computation of the diameter of P. Thus, the k-dispersion problem is a natural generalization of the diameter problem. In this paper, we consider the case of k=3, which is the 3-dispersion problem, when P is in convex position. We present an O(n2)-time algorithm to compute a 3-dispersion of P.

Object contour detection is a task of extracting the shape created by the boundaries between objects in an image. Conventional methods limit the detection targets to specific categories, or miss-detect edges of patterns inside an object. We propose a new method to represent a contour image where the pixel value is the distance to the boundary. Contour detection becomes a regression problem that estimates this contour image. A deep convolutional network for contour estimation is combined with stereo vision to detect unspecified object contours. Furthermore, thanks to similar inference targets and common network structure, we propose a network that simultaneously estimates both contour and disparity with fully shared weights. As a result of experiments, the multi-tasking network drew a good precision-recall curve, and F-measure was about 0.833 for FlyingThings3D dataset. L1 loss of disparity estimation for the dataset was 2.571. This network reduces the amount of calculation and memory capacity by half, and accuracy drop compared to the dedicated networks is slight. Then we quantize both weights and activations of the network to 3-bit. We devise a dedicated hardware architecture for the quantized CNN and implement it on an FPGA. This circuit uses only internal memory to perform forward propagation calculations, that eliminates high-power external memory accesses. This circuit is a stall-free pixel-by-pixel pipeline, and performs 8 rows, 16 input channels, 16 output channels, 3 by 3 pixels convolution calculations in parallel. The convolution calculation performance at the operating frequency of 250 MHz is 9 TOPs/s.

Image resolution under the effect of color speckle was successfully measured for a raster-scan mobile projector, using the modified contrast modulation method. This method was based on the eye-diagram analysis for distinguishing the binary image signals, black-and-white line pairs. The image resolution and the related metrics, illuminance, chromaticity, and speckle contrast were measured at the nine regions on the full-frame area projected on a standard diffusive reflectance screen. The nonuniformity data over the nine regions were discussed and analyzed.

A line display that utilizes saccade has been proposed. When an observer moves his or her eyes on a one-dimensional fixed line display, two-dimensional information is perceived on the retina. In this paper, a high speed flashing line display was developed using a CPLD and PIC microcontroller. The flashing period was reduced to 20 µs, which was less than half that of our previous system. The relationship between the flashing frequency and the optimum distance that can be perceived with the least distortion was clarified. The results show that the higher the flashing frequency is, the more information can be perceived from a farther position. Calculated values, which were based on the relationship between the flashing period and the width of the light source, were almost identical with measured values at the flashing frequencies from 3.3 kHz to 10 kHz. Due to short flashing period, the developed line display not only was visible at distance of 15 m or more, which is suitable for outdoor use, but also realized 16 gray levels.

This article proposes to apply the auto-correlation function (ACF), bispectrum analysis, and convolutional neural networks (CNN) to implement radar emitter identification (REI) based on intrapulse features. In this work, we combine ACF with bispectrum for signal feature extraction. We first calculate the ACF of each emitter signal, and then the bispectrum of the ACF and obtain the spectrograms. The spectrum images are taken as the feature maps of the radar emitters and fed into the CNN classifier to realize automatic identification. We simulate signal samples of different modulation types in experiments. We also consider the feature extraction method directly using bispectrum analysis for comparison. The simulation results demonstrate that by combining ACF with bispectrum analysis, the proposed scheme can attain stronger robustness to noise, the spectrograms of our approach have more pronounced features, and our approach can achieve better identification performance at low signal-to-noise ratios.

In order to upgrade the refresh rate about High-Resolution (1280×1024) OLED-on-Silicon (OLEDoS) microdisplay, this paper discusses one compression scan strategy by reducing scan time redundancy. This scan strategy firstly compresses the low-bit gray level scan serial as one unit; second, the scan unit is embedded into the high-bit gray level serial and new scan sequence is generated. Furthermore, micro-display platform is designed to verify the scan strategy performance. The experiment shows that this scan strategy can deal with 144Hz refresh rate, which is obviously faster than the traditional scan strategy.

Given a set P of n points on which facilities can be placed and an integer k, we want to place k facilities on some points so that the minimum distance between facilities is maximized. The problem is called the k-dispersion problem. In this paper, we consider the 3-dispersion problem when P is a set of points on a plane (2-dimensional space). Note that the 2-dispersion problem corresponds to the diameter problem. We give an O(n) time algorithm to solve the 3-dispersion problem in the L∞ metric, and an O(n) time algorithm to solve the 3-dispersion problem in the L1 metric. Also, we give an O(n2 log n) time algorithm to solve the 3-dispersion problem in the L2 metric.

This paper formulates minimal word-line (WL) delay time with pre-emphasis pulses to design the pulse width as a function of the overdrive voltage for large memory arrays such as 3D NAND. Circuit theory for a single RC line only with capacitance to ground and that only with coupling capacitance as well as a general case where RC lines have both grounded and coupling capacitance is discussed to provide an optimum pre-emphasis pulse width to minimize the delay time. The theory is expanded to include the cases where the resistance of the RC line driver is not negligibly small. The minimum delay time formulas of a single RC delay line and capacitive coupling RC lines was in good agreement (i.e. within 5% error) with measurement. With this research, circuit designers can estimate an optimum pre-emphasis pulse width and the delay time for an RC line in the initial design phase.

Triboelectric generator is attracting much attention as a power source of electronics application. Electromotive force induced by rubbing is a key for triboelectric generator. From dielectric physics point of view, there are two microscopic origins for electromotive force, i.e., electronic charge displacement and dipolar rotation. A new way for evaluating these two origins is an urgent task. We have been developing an optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) technique as a tool for probing charge displacement and dipolar alignment, selectively, by utilizing wavelength dependent response of SHG to the two origins. In this paper, an experimental way that identifies polarity of electronic charge displacement, i.e., positive charge and negative charge, is proposed. Results showed that the use of local oscillator makes it possible to identify the polarity of charges by means of SHG. As an example, positive and negative charge distribution created by rubbing polyimide surface is illustrated.

An olfactory display is a device to present smells. Temporal characteristics of three types of olfactory displays such as one based upon high-speed switching of solenoid valves, desktop-type one based on SAW atomizer and wearable-type one based on SAW atomizer were evaluated using three odorants with different volatilities. The sensory test revealed that the olfactory displays based on SAW atomizer had the presentation speeds faster than that of solenoid valves switching. Especially, the wearable one had an excellent temporal characteristic. These results largely depend on the difference in the odor delivery method. The data obtained in this study provides basic knowledge when we make olfactory contents.

We developed an 8.4-inch electrostatic-tactile touch display using a segmented-electrode array (30×20) as both tactile pixels and touch sensors. Each pixel can be excited independently so that the electrostatic-tactile touch display allows presenting real localized tactile textures in any shape. A driving scheme in which the tactile strength is independent of the grounding state of the human body by employing two-phased actuation was also proposed and demonstrated. Furthermore, tactile crosstalk was investigated to find it was due to the voltage fluctuation in the human body and it was diminished by applying the aforementioned driving scheme.

3D video contents depend on the shooting condition, which is camera positioning. Depth range control in the post-processing stage is not easy, but essential as the video from arbitrary camera positions must be generated. If light field information can be obtained, video from any viewpoint can be generated exactly and post-processing is possible. However, a light field has a huge amount of data, and capturing a light field is not easy. To compress data quantity, we proposed the visually equivalent light field (VELF), which uses the characteristics of human vision. Though a number of cameras are needed, VELF can be captured by a camera array. Since camera interpolation is made using linear blending, calculation is so simple that we can construct a ray distribution field of VELF by optical interpolation in the VELF3D display. It produces high image quality due to its high pixel usage efficiency. In this paper, we summarize the relationship between the characteristics of human vision, VELF and VELF3D display. We then propose a method to control the depth range for the observed image on the VELF3D display and discuss the effectiveness and limitations of displaying the processed image on the VELF3D display. Our method can be applied to other 3D displays. Since the calculation is just weighted averaging, it is suitable for real-time applications.

Input devices based on direct touch have replaced traditional ones and become the mainstream interactive technology for handheld devices. Although direct touch interaction proves to be easy to use, its problems, e.g. the occlusion problem and the fat finger problem, lower user experience. Camera-based mobile interaction is one of the solutions to overcome the problems. There are two typical interaction styles to generate camera-based pointing interaction for handheld devices: move the device or move an object before the camera. In the first interaction style, there are two approaches to move a cursor's position across the handheld display: move it towards the same direction or the opposite direction which the device moves to. In this paper, the results of a comparison research, which compared the pointing performances of three camera-based pointing techniques, are presented. All pointing techniques utilized input from the rear-facing camera. The results indicate that the interaction style of moving a finger before the camera outperforms the other one in efficiency, accuracy, and throughput. The results also indicate that within the interaction style of moving the device, the cursor positioning style of moving the cursor to the opposite direction is slightly better than the other one in efficiency and throughput. Based on the findings, we suggest giving priority to the interaction style of moving a finger when deploying camera-based pointing techniques on handheld devices. Given that the interaction style of moving the device supports one-handed manipulation, it also worth deploying when one-handed interaction is needed. According to the results, the cursor positioning style of moving the cursor towards the opposite direction which the device moves to may be a better choice.

In this paper, we propose an accurate calibration method for glassless stereoscopic systems. The method uses a lenticular lens on a general display. Glassless stereoscopic displays are currently used in many fields; however, accurately adjusting their physical display position is difficult because an accuracy of several microns or one hundredth of a degree is required, particularly given their larger display area. The proposed method enables a dynamic adjustment of the positions of images on the display to match various physical conditions in three-dimensional (3D) displays. In particular, compared with existing approaches, this avoids degradation of the image quality due to the image location on the screen while improving the image quality by local mapping. Moreover, it is shown to decrease the calibration time by performing simultaneous processing for each local area. As a result of the calibration, the offset jitter representing the crosstalk reduces from 14.946 to 8.645 mm. It is shown that high-quality 3D videos can be generated. Finally, we construct a stereoscopic viewing system using a high-resolution display and lenticular lens and produce high-quality 3D images with automatic calibration.

In this paper, we analyzed the pulse responses of dispersion medium with periodically conducting strips by using a fast inversion Laplace transform (FILT) method combined with point matching method (PMM) for both the TM and TE cases. Specifically, we investigated the influence of the width and number of the conducting strips on the pulse response and distribution of the electric field.

The dispersion problem is a variant of the facility location problem. Given a set P of n points and an integer k, we intend to find a subset S of P with |S|=k such that the cost minp∈S{cost(p)} is maximized, where cost(p) is the sum of the distances from p to the nearest c points in S. We call the problem the dispersion problem with partial c sum cost, or the PcS-dispersion problem. In this paper we present two algorithms to solve the P2S-dispersion problem(c=2) if all points of P are on a line. The running times of the algorithms are O(kn2 log n) and O(n log n), respectively. We also present an algorithm to solve the PcS-dispersion problem if all points of P are on a line. The running time of the algorithm is O(knc+1).

In this paper, we propose an interactive system for controlling the pressure while cutting paper with a knife. The purpose is to improve the cutting skill of novices learning the art of paper-cutting. Our system supports skill improvement for novices by measuring and evaluating their cutting pressure in real-time. In this study, we use a knife with a blade attached to a stylus with a pressure sensor, which can measure the pressure, coordinates, and cutting time. We have developed a similar support system using a stylus and a tablet device. This system allows the user to experience the pressure of experts through tracing. Paper-cutting is created by cutting paper with a knife. The practice system in this paper provides practice in an environment more akin to the production of paper cutting. In the first experiment, we observed differences in cutting ability by comparing cutting pressures between novices and experts. As a result, we confirmed that novices cut paper at a higher pressure than experts. We developed a practice system that guides the novices on controlling the pressure by providing information on the cutting pressure values of experts. This system shows the difference in pressure between novices and experts using a synchronous display of color and sound. Using these functions, novices learn to adjust their cutting pressure according to that of experts. Determining the right cutting pressure is a critical skill in the art of paper-cutting, and we aim to improve the same with our system. In the second experiment, we tested the effect of the practice system on the knife device. We compared the changes in cutting pressure with and without our system, the practice methods used in the workshop, and the previously developed stylus-based support system. As a result, we confirmed that practicing with the knife device had a better effect on the novice's skill in controlling cutting pressure than other practice methods.

Let P be a set of points on the plane, and d(p, q) be the distance between a pair of points p, q in P. For a point p∈P and a subset S ⊂ P with |S|≥3, the 2-dispersion cost, denoted by cost2(p, S), of p with respect to S is the sum of (1) the distance from p to the nearest point in Ssetminus{p} and (2) the distance from p to the second nearest point in Ssetminus{p}. The 2-dispersion cost cost2(S) of S ⊂ P with |S|≥3 is minp∈S{cost2(p, S)}. Given a set P of n points and an integer k we wish to compute k point subset S of P with maximum cost2(S). In this paper we give a simple 1/({4sqrt{3}}) approximation algorithm for the problem.

In this study, we examined the mechanical durability and self-recovery characterization of liquid crystal gel films with lysine-based gelator. The results indicated that the structural destruction in liquid crystal gel films is attributed to dissociation among network structure. The cracked LC gel films can be recovered by formation of sol-sate films.

Depth (disparity) estimation from a light field (a set of dense multi-view images) is currently attracting much research interest. This paper focuses on how to handle a noisy light field for disparity estimation, because if left as it is, the noise deteriorates the accuracy of estimated disparity maps. Several researchers have worked on this problem, e.g., by introducing disparity cues that are robust to noise. However, it is not easy to break the trade-off between the accuracy and computational speed. To tackle this trade-off, we have integrated a fast denoising scheme in a fast disparity estimation framework that works in the epipolar plane image (EPI) domain. Specifically, we found that a simple 1-D slanted filter is very effective for reducing noise while preserving the underlying structure in an EPI. Moreover, this simple filtering does not require elaborate parameter configurations in accordance with the target noise level. Experimental results including real-world inputs show that our method can achieve good accuracy with much less computational time compared to some state-of-the-art methods.